A Horrible Day

So yesterday started out as any other day....meds, breakfast, get dressed...you get the idea. Then David started throwing things around our reading area and I told him that he needed to stop or I would have to take the toys away from him. He started yelling at me saying "no" and then said "I am going to beat you to death". At that point I just walked away and ignored his comment to not bring further attention to his behavior.

Then after dinner he decided that he wanted 7 powdered donuts. I told him "no, you can only have 2 for now," this lead to him punching me near my left kidney so I picked up the phone and pretended to call the police and at that point he started crying and apologizing. So I "told the officer" that he has calmed down and that I think we will be okay.

After that David didn't want to let go of me and kept holding around my waist. I told him that I needed a timeout and that he needed time to calm down but he wouldn't let go. I reminded him about how his therapist talked about needing time to calm down. So he grabbed his bowl with 2 donuts, while sobbing, and I headed outside for a much needed cigarette.

As I was gathering myself and my thoughts the front door slowly opens and in a very small voice David says "Mommy, I broke your window because I couldn't get all of the anger out." Well, so much for calming down because now I am really worried that he hurt himself. Luckily there wasn't a scratch on him because he broke the window by smashing his giant nerf gun into it. However it did make a big mess for cleanup which I had to do ASAP at this point because of the pets. During that time David sat calmly at the computer playing a webkinz game but I knew in my mind that this has gone too far.

I finished cleaning and then calmly told David that we needed to go for a ride. He kept asking where we were going but I just kept saying "for a ride" because I couldn't tell him that we were headed to the hospital's behavioral center.

We arrived there around 8pm, with tears rolling down my face the whole ride there. When David realized where we were he started crying but did not put up a fight. We met with the crisis team and they determined that since he was calmed down and we had an appointment with his therapist the following day that he was okay to go home and we got home around 11pm.

After a not-so-good night sleep we met with his therapist and she advised that we meet with his medication manager. While David was still in with the therapist I was able to work out an afternoon appointment with his meds manager. The meeting went well and we increased his morning and evening meds. All we can do now is wait.

On a good note, my Dad is coming back down this weekend to help me out with David and to be here for me emotionally. I am so thankful that his is able to make it down here.

Praying tomorrow will be a better day...

Vacation

Well, vacation to Pittsbutgh went well. We had a few incidents where David decided to punch his cousin in the nose and cause a pretty bad nose bleed. Then at the amusement park he was having a meltdown and didn't want his cousin sitting in the wagon so he grabbed his shirt and started beating him in the head. It is amazing the looks you get while restraining your child on the ground while he is still able to bite your arm. But life goes on and the other parts of the trip were great so we will focus on the positive!

I wasn't expecting this!

Yesterday while discussing things with David's OT I was informed that David has mild dyslexia. I know that they talked about letter reversal while he was writing, but I guess it never registered that dyslexia was a possibility. I really wasn't prepared. It completely explains why his ready is so choppy and he gets frustrated when learning new words. I just wasn't expecting it. I just feel so bad for David because he is dealing with so much. I know that it really doesn't phase him much, but I hate to see him struggle with this much. I was going to post about this last night but I was still in a state of disbelief that I didn't know what to write. Time to move forward and make sure we are working on strengthening this as well.

An Awesome Book

I read the most AWESOME book!A Friend Like Henry. This is a must read for any family member that deals with a child with autism. I laughed and cried, but mostly cried because a lot of it hit so close to home!

An Unusual Field Trip

Well, we left early this morning for David's therapy appointment so we could take an unscheduled trip to Maryview Hosptial's Behavioral Center. David didn't know where we were going and I hated not telling him because I always prep him for where we are going. However in this case it was very important that he didn't know in case it caused a meltdown. 

For the past several days David has felt the need to throw stuff at me or hit me with things. I kept telling him that the behavior was inappropriate. Rather than wrestling the object away from him and causing more issue that would probably involve me getting hurt I have just been leaving the room. Yesterday I told him that if he didn't stop hitting me with stuff that he would have to go to the behavioral hospital so that mommy could be safe. Hence the trip this morning.

We went into the lobby of the hospital and sat there to talk.  I asked him to look at how plain the walls were and that there were no toys in an area that appeared to be for children. Just a painting of some fish on the wall. We talked about how he would not have any toys or video games to play here and that they don't have a tv to watch Spongebob on. David got a bit upset, but there were no meltdowns. He was just sad and quiet.

As we left I circled around the building and talked to him about how they don't serve Chef Boyardee or waffels/bagles with Nutella. He started to really cry at that point and I felt horrible. However, I knew I was doing the right thing by showing him that the hospital was real and telling him what would happen and that I couldn't stay with him.

David did really well during his therapy session after the hospital visit. I told his doctor about it and she said that it was great that I took him there. David was fidgety while we talked about the morning visit and how his behavior needs to improve. I am not sure why he has fallen back into the behavior of hitting and throwing things at me again, but hopefully we can work on resolving it.

Another Disability

After a nice visit with the Pediatric Developmental Specialist we officially have a diagnosis of Dysgraphia (a writing disability) for David. This will help a lot in the development of his new IEP for the fall.